The European Day of Languages – celebrating diversity in our school!

On Wednesday 26th September, we celebrated the European Day of Languages by coming to school dressed in colours that represented European flags. Mrs Williams-Ryan, dressed in black and white and certainly had everyone guessing her choice of flag and revealed that she was dressed in the colours of Brittany. The day started with a special assembly during which the pupils heard about their teachers’ experiences of going  to school in Europe. Olive, our Head Girl interviewed Miss Magdic from Slovenia; Miss Diez from Spain; and Mrs Williams-Ryan who grew up in Geneva. The pupils were surprised to hear that Miss Magdic learnt Slovenian, German and English at school; that Miss Diez didn’t finish school until 5:00pm; and that Mrs Williams-Ryan did not go to school on a Thursday but instead went on a Saturday morning. Mrs Williams-Ryan then taught the whole school, including the staff, the Spanish alphabet through a song with a very catchy tune. Throughout the day, pupils were encouraged to greet each other and staff in their home languages and this displayed how multi-cultural the school is. We heard Russian, Spanish and French among other languages. To enhance their knowledge of Europe, the pupils took part in a number of quizzes and throughout the week had the opportunity to enter a special online competition using Duolingo for schools.

Headmistress Mrs Williams-Ryan commented: “The European Day of Languages was a great success. We all learnt so much about other cultures by engaging in an array of language focused activities and enjoyed exploring and celebrating the diversity of our school.”